Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering | Research | Innovation Collaborative Laboratory for Nanotechnologies to Empower the Future Soldier (ICONS)

Innovation Collaborative Laboratory for Nanotechnologies to Empower the Future Soldier (ICONS)

The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN) and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Soldier Center have created a one-of-a-kind joint collaborative laboratory titled Innovation Collaborative Laboratory for Nanotechnologies to Empower the Future Soldier (ICONS). The purpose of ICONS is to establish technologies that will protect the soldier through integrated science and engineering. Through ICONS, JSNN faculty and their affiliates, along with their students (graduate and undergraduate) and postdoctoral fellows to work with scientists and engineers from DEVCOM’s Soldier Center and share research facilities to create next generation technologies.

The partnership is being initiated through a $1.05 M cooperative agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense. ICONS research projects are co-led by two JSNN professors, Dr. Kristen Dellinger will lead efforts in Nanoengineering, while Dr. Tetyana Ignatova will lead efforts in Nanoscience. Three major areas are the focus of ICONS:

Developing new sustainable nanoscale materials that are lighter, longer, safer, stronger and can be incorporated into yarn and weaved into fabric for soldiers, particularly women soldier clothing, and designed to empower them. These materials can also be used as additives for helmets and other devices.
The micro/nanodevice group at JSNN will utilize the fabrication facilities to design and establish sensors to detect various chemical hazards that will provide high sensitivity, selectivity, and reusability under extreme environments.
The BSL3 lab will allow JSNN researchers in collaboration with Soldier Center scientists to study the effect of biological hazards that are often encountered by soldiers on the battlefield and to develop technologies that detect them rapidly and decontaminate them effectively.

The proximity of JSNN to several military bases in North Carolina allows researchers to directly connect with military soldiers and veterans to better understand soldier needs and to train students to develop solutions from the users’ perspective. JSNN’s unique facilities such as the Computer Assisted Virtual Experimentation (CAVE) lab, a Nanotechnology Textile lab, the Class 1000 clean room and its state-of-the-art equipment opens new collaborative opportunities for DEVCOM SC scientists and engineers. The collaborative lab will allow both entities to leverage their expertise and share facilities to advance technologies to support soldiers and future military needs.

Meet the ICONS Team

The JSNN Faculty

Reza Zadegan
Lifeng Zhang
Sherine Obare
Kristen Dellinger
Shyam Aravamudhan
Shanthi Iyer
Hemali Rathnayake
Tetyana Ignatova
Yirong Mo
Jianjun Wei
Dennis LaJeunesse

The JSNN Students

Jared Averitt
Gerald Boadu
Sharika Cochran
Isaac Fernandez
Ashley Herring Nicholas
Zelena Johnson
Besan Kader
Selina Laws
Keshan Lighty
Michael Reed
Anthony Trofe
Lane Webster
Kyle Williamson
Carmen Wright
Lawson Zimmerman

The Soldier Center principal investigators

Gianna ahnrud
- Food Protection and Innovative Packaging Team
todd alexander
- Emerging Materials Development Team
Erin Anderson
- CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team
Margaret Auerbach
- Emerging Materials Development Team
Paola D’Angelo
- Emerging Materials Development Team
Michael Ghebrebrhan
- Optical and Electromagnetic Materials Team
elizabeth hirst
- Emerging Materials Development Team
lanaiya kydd
- Office of CTO
Rshannon mcgraw-manza
- Food Protection and Innovative Packaging Team
ramanathan nagarajan
- Lead
ken ngo
- CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team
joseph palomba
- CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team
jason parker
- Ballistic and Blast Protection Team
dominique reilly
- Food Protection and Innovative Packaging Team
larobert stote
- Biological Sciences and TechnologyTeam
kathleen swana
- Office of CTO
Joshua Uzarski
- CB Innovative Material and Ensemble Development Tean
Michael Wiederoder
- Food Protection and Innovative Packaging Team

Current Research

Project Title	JSNN Faculty PI	JSNN Student	Soldier Center PI
Point-of-care detection using surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy	Kristen Dellinger	Isaac Fernandez	Todd Alexander (Emerging Materials Development Team)
Detection of RNA genomes using self-assembled machine and colorimetric assays	Reza Zadegan	Michael Reed	Shannon McGraw-Manza, Gianna Ahnrud, Dominique Reilly (Food Protection and Innovative Packaging Team)
Hybrid Polymer Nanocomposites Developed from Novel Nanoscale Fillers	Lifeng Zhang	Laurence Price-Webb	Jason Parker (Ballistic and Blast Protection Team)
Nanoscale Materials with Dual Sensing and Blast Protection	Sherine Obare	Sharika Cochran	Joseph Palomba (CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team)
Inkjet-Printed MoS2 Platform for Multimodal Nanobiosensor	Shyam Aravamudhan	Gerald Boadu	(CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team)
Flexible III-V Nanowire Devices	Shanthi Iyer	Hakeem Menefee	Paola D’Angelo (Emerging Materials Development Team)
Low-density advanced functional materials for soldier’s protection from extreme environments	Hemali Rathnayake		Elizabeth Hirst (Emerging Materials Development Team)
Design of bioinspired self-assemblies of conducting metal nanowires	Hemali Rathnayake, Daniel Herr, Yirong Mo	Selina Laws	Elizabeth Hirst (Emerging Materials Development Team), Paola D’Angelo (Emerging Materials Development Team)
Intra- and Inter-molecular interactions driving protein folding, DNA twisting, self-assembly	Yirong Mo, Tetyana Ignatova	Carmen Wright	Kathleen Swana (Office of CTO), Erin Anderson (CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team)
Computational study on NPs, CNDs and 2D materials to elucidate the correlation between properties and compositions	Yirong Mo, Tetyana Ignatova	Jared Averitt, Kyle Williamson	Michael Ghebrebrhan (Optical and Electromagnetic Materials Team), Joseph Palomba (CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team)
Modulation of inherent properties of 2D devices by strain and doping engineering	Tetyana Ignatova, Jianjun Wei, Yirong Mo	Anthony Trofe	Joshua Uzarski (CB Innovative Material and Ensemble Development Team)
Carbon Nanodots (CNDs) for regulating cellular oxidative stress	Jianjun Wei, Sherine Obare	Lane Webster
Nanomaterials and Nanostructures for sensing and biomarker detection	Tetyana Ignatova, Jianjun Wei	Besan Kader	Michael Wiederoder (Food Protection and Innovative Packaging Team)
Plant genetic engineering for improved readiness, resilience, and national security	Eric Josephs, Dennis LaJeunesse, Dan Herr, Yirong Mo	Ashley Herring Nicholas	Kathleen Swana (Office of CTO), LaNaiya Kydd (Office of CTO)
Functional Natural Textiles by Design	Lifeng Zhang, Daniel Herr	Keshan Lighty	Margaret Auerbach (Emerging Materials Development Team)
Determining nanoscale interactions that enhance antifungal drug therapies.	Dennis LaJeunesse	Zelena Johnson	Erin Anderson (CB Innovative Material & Ensemble Development Team) Robert Stote (Biological Sciences and Technology Team)